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In a late-night session on Monday, the House Rules Committee paved the way for a crucial vote by advancing legislation aimed at ending the ongoing partial government shutdown. This move sets the stage for what promises to be a closely contested vote on the House floor, posing a significant challenge for House Republican leadership.
With an 8-4 vote divided along party lines, the committee approved a funding package that the Senate had passed the previous week. The package comprises a “minibus” of five full-year appropriations bills and includes a measure to extend funding for the Department of Homeland Security for an additional two weeks. This extension is designed to allow time for negotiations on Democratic demands for reforms in immigration enforcement.
The House had already passed the six funding bills earlier in January. However, adjustments negotiated by the White House with Senate Democrats, following the controversial incident involving federal immigration enforcement agents and Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti, necessitated another House vote. This situation led to a partial government shutdown that began on Saturday.
While the final passage of the package is anticipated to garner bipartisan support, Republicans must first navigate a procedural hurdle on Tuesday. This procedural rule vote, traditionally decided along party lines, will serve as a litmus test for the majority’s grip on the House floor.
Given the razor-thin Republican majority, which was further narrowed by the swearing-in of Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee from Texas on Monday evening, the GOP cannot afford more than one defection from their ranks on any party-line vote, assuming full attendance and participation from all members.
The House is moving the bill through the rule because House Democrats declined to provide the substantial support needed to fast-track the bill with a two-thirds vote under suspension of the rules, which could have resulted in passage of the bill on Monday.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed optimism that the House will approve the funding bill on Tuesday, despite some demands from the conservative wing from his party.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) had been spearheading a push to add the SAVE America Act — legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and ID to cast a ballot — to the funding package and send it back to the Senate.
But in a good sign for the funding package’s prospects of success on Tuesday, Luna told reporters that after meeting with President Trump at the White House Monday and getting encouragement about ways to move the SAVE Act in the Senate, she would vote for the rule on the funding package.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member who is often a key GOP holdout on various party-line measures, articulated the frustration that some Republicans have about the Senate agreeing to split off the DHS funding bill, casting doubt about the prospects of fruitful negotiation on immigration enforcement.
“Homland Security is more than just ICE. They want to dismantle ICE. It’s not going to happen. There is a strong contingency and growing — the minute they start all these outlandish demands — it’s not going to happen,” Norman said during a hearing on the bill on Monday.
“I will reluctantly vote the rule and give them a stupid ten days, and let’s see how that plays out. It’s going to get shut down. Let ‘em bear the consequences.”
A few House GOP members told The Hill on Monday night that they had not yet decided how they would vote on extending funding.